About the performer

Daniel Shapiro

DANIEL SHAPIRO continues to gain recognition as a leading interpreter of Schubert, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, and Beethoven, and as a teacher and coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has given critically acclaimed recitals and concerto appearances across the U.S., and in Brazil, Europe, Korea, and China. He has twice performed Beethoven’s 32-sonata cycle, and his CD of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and DVDs of Schubert sonatas have received enthusiastic reviews. He was a top prize winner of the William Kapell International Piano Competition, and also won the American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship Award. He has given master classes in several of the leading conservatories of Korea, China and Hong Kong, and has also taught at many summer music festivals across the U.S., Canada and Italy.

As a chamber musician, Shapiro has performed regularly with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony and Cleveland orchestras. He has also performed with the Cavani, Mirò, and Linden Quartets, and has released chamber music CDs on the Harmonia Mundi and ASV labels.

His musical scope has also included the study of conducting: he studied with Daniel Lewis, Victor Yampolsky, Fritz Zweig, and Gustav Meier. He made his conducting debut at sixteen at Tanglewood, and conducted Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Akron Lyric Opera.

His musicianship has also been enhanced and deepened by extensive collaboration with singers: listening to and working with them has been a source of tremendous inspiration. He studied art song with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and opera with Natalie Limonick, and was an opera and art-song coach at UCLA. A native of southern California, Shapiro began the study of piano at the age of six. His teachers have included Leon Fleisher, John Perry, Russell Sherman, Joanna Graudan, and Reginald Stewart. He studied at the University of Southern California and at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received his doctorate.

Daniel Shapiro is also an expert Scrabble player; he has won several tournaments and is currently one of the highest-ranked players in Ohio. More information can be found at his website, danielshapiropianist.com.